The other big day

I don't have as much to report on the other big day as the end of it wasn't conclusive and since the end run happened after that as I reported in another post, there isn't a point of finality.

More to come as the world turns

Thanks for listening

The ghost in the closet

You ever wonder what debris gets left in a conversation you thought you were a part of but realize that other agenda's are usurping your own.

The vendor that was in town in a previous post is doing an end run on me with an outsourcing push for their application only.

I find myself between don't care and damn you every time I think about it, so this is my venting space.

I hate it when one good idea gets taken as gospel and the perception of those non technology executives leads to well it must be a good solution for everything.

Yet when I had conversations and brought it to the table as my idea, with an intent to ensure that the air was clear, I get the end run.

I am somewhere between no way in hell this will happen and if I fail I must quit.  I just don't get it why we continue to circle around the same topic over and over, how many times do we have to address an issue and be told it is in the closet to find it gets dragged out again, and again, it sounds like an agenda or just a bad idea being used wrongly.

Now let me clarify, this isn't year over year validation or re visiting this issue every few years. This is 3X visiting this issue in 8 months. If it's dead let it lie, if there is an agenda then make it known, I hate the dance as it is disrespectful of my time and energy and disregards all previous work to validate or not a particular issue.  If the answer before wasn't satisfactory then say so and make it known that the issue isn't dead but will be revisited, don't leave everyone feeling that the issue was addressed.

Anyway's, thanks for letting me purge that as I need a release

Thanks for listening

My week in reflection

As I said before I had a big week this week.

One of our primary vendors of software for our Canadian division came in for a relationship meeting, I tied them up for hours reviewing issues that they hadn't closed.

They also Presented some of their new direction, a bit too focused on the potential of a perfect world everyone's linked mind set, but that always strikes me as forgetting the reality of today's world and not everyone gets on the same bandwagon ever.  Otherwise a great concept.

Thanks for listening

Are you a digital native

I was at a Gartner event in may 2008 in central Florida where the term Digital Native was used to refer to the 20 something's that are entering the work force.  Folks older than that like myself were referred to as a digital immigrant.

What do you think of the usage of these terms to describe different age groups in the Internet space?

 

Thanks for listening

Progress, database from hell or bad technology

I have used in past solutions, IBM DB2, MS SQL, My SQL but using progress as suggested by our partner is turning out to be a nightmare.

It lacks the smarts to even know how to size itself or allow a business to grow without much pain and anguish.

If I get this wrong and you know Progress then please enlightening us, but either the technology is bad or my vendor is, their solution suggests the former.

in all experiences I am NOT the programmer or DBA, I am the mouth piece who has to explain to the people in suits in the corner office why this technology is causing us grief and we need more money.

My most recent project before this was using DB2 as the backend, so that becomes my main point of reference.

My Pain Points are as follows with this environment that we never had to deal with when we used DB2:

1) As I now know that when our vendor setup the database they have to specify a maximum size value, not great because you can't extend the database beyond that size without dumping and reloading the whole thing, Currently I have a 29GB database and that takes so long to update.

2) The database when created is also setup with variables for extents inside the database, the extents are created up to the maximum size specified.  Get too many extents and viola you are at maximum database size, hit the max and your database stops even though you have lots more disk it can use.

3) You need more than programmers to work in the environment, you need programmers who are inherent DBA's.  Great if your used to Oracle where you may have a team of database related skill sets to keep it going along with a massive chequebook to fund the licenses, but with DB2 you can use your programmer to write good code and the database handles so much more for everyone from sysadmin to DBA.

4) Tuning the database is 100% manual, no automated tools built in to assist you. That will cost me another $20K/yr to handle.

5) No tools to assist with and build index's, in DB2 that was very automated and the engine even helped with recommendations based upon constantly accessed pathways.

6) ODBC connectivity - what a shame, only JDBC out of the box and everything is $$$$

In short after some very serious six figure dollars I am disappointed in the enterprise class Progress database.  If you know more than me about this platform, lets talk as right now I love the application in this environment but the technology sucks.

 

Thanks for listening

Ode to Customs Broker

While I can not take any credit for this piece, it is believed it originated by Mr. Charles Riess who was then President, Geo. H. Young & Co. Ltd. customs broker and consultants. It was presented in September 1978 at the retirement of Gordon Feir, a leading member of the company at that time.

Titled: The fundamentals of a Customs Broker

C is for "confidence", which one must have in oneself.

U is for "understanding", which one must acquire.

S is for "service", which one must provide.

T is for "trustworthy", a most desirable attribute.

O is for "observant", which one must continually be.

M is for "memory", an essential requirement.

S is for "satisfaction", in one's performance.


B is for "benevolent", one's contribution to a state of goodwill.

R is for "responsibilities", which one must be prepared to assume.

O is for "obligations", which one must be bound to.

K is for "keen", a state of intellectual alertness.

E is for "expertise", a technical skill one must achieve.

R is for "respect", which one in our profession must earn.

Updates and where have I been

So many things have been on the go since May both personally and professionally. Here is a brief listing of what i have been up to, I hope to blog some more on these items in the next short while.

Professionally

• Attended the Gartner event in May, that lead to starting a "group" in Linkedin social networking site.  I am on facebook but for other reasons not to network, otherwise I use Linkedin as my networking site.  I created a CIO Manitoba (MB CIO) group and have local Information Technology leaders joining as we try and create a virtual peer group to share best practises, ask questions, etc.  This may lead to establishing a local Chapter of CIO association of Canada if local members are interested. If this applies to you please check out Linkedin and our group, all local leaders are welcome to join.

 

• Growth is a good thing, the problems are just different. For a second year in a row my employer is in growth mode and we are renovating and expanding our space at our head office and guess who is leading the project, yours truly.  It seems IT staff are the only ones who are used to working on "projects". We are currently at ~80 associates and we are adding space for 17 more making our head office almost 100 people. At a minimum that is moving everyone at least 1X, some folks more than once as they relocate as part of this growth. Way more work than I expected and moving existing staff including emptying their existing space for paint and carpet renovations is a HUGE task.

 

• I am happy to report that with the help from some associates at GHY International we have been able to get approval to start a full Recycling program to put our company on the right track for greening. We go through over 7 million printed pages a year and that is just head office, we have 8 other sites as well.

 

• Those that have knowing me for a while through blogs and other mediums including in person meetings, will know about the all in wonder work we did with IBM's System i series of computers, now called simply "i'.  We are at lease renewal and we looked at the next size for a new all in wonder box to push the limits of this concept but at special pricing north of 1 million we can't afford that. So we are redesigning the whole concept looking to use baby "i' power6 based units (qty 2) for i5 OS and AIX workloads respectively. To handle Linux and Windows workloads we are looking to add IBM Bladecenter H with a IBM/Netapp N Series SAN with VMware.  To add some technology zip we are looking at working with a JS22 blade and we are still running currently Nortel's SCS500 code set for a VOIP solution on a Linux LPAR under i5 OS.

 

Personally

• June is such a bad month at my house, both kids have birthdays, nieces and nephews graduating from Grade 12, short summer season starts, camping season starts, yard maintenance begins, and so on.

 

• I have been looking at time shares in beach locations, nothing makes me want to buy yet, looking for a multi destinational program with open weeks concept in many, many locations around the world. we may just try renting first.

 

• Due to our high annual spend we joined Direct Buy to save some cash, just joined so nothing to report yet.  Not to be confused with the North American retailer Best Buy, at least that's what i always call them, shame on me...

 

That's it for now, time to get ready for work tomorrow.

 

Thanks for listening

Welcome to my weblog

Welcome to my first post on this my second weblog adventure.

To set the stage for future publications I thought it worthy to tell you a little about me and what you can expect from this weblog.

Besides all of the work history below, I am a father of two great kids, and husband to the most supportive person I have ever met, my darling wife Kathy.

I joined GHY International in October 1988 as the first IT staff member in the firm's 100-year history. Currently serving as Vice President of Information Technology and a member of the executive team of the International Trade Services firm. Starting from my roots in International Trade as an in house Customs Broker for a Canada wide Manitoba based wholesaler/manufacture; I have been a conduit in developing GHY, along with Government initiatives, migrating from a paper-based environment to an electronic platform over the course of the last decade. The various initiatives, which I have directed over the last 17 years, have helped GHY become a leading player in the industry. Most recently the newest division, GHY USA, Inc. has become one of the fastest growing customs brokers on the US northern border, ranking in the top 10% of all brokers by volume nationwide. From my early education in EDI until today I have taken a leading role in the advancement of Electronic Commerce through various organizations including Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce Technology Innovation Committee (TIC), and past chair of the Electronic Commerce Focus Group, I still actively promotes electronic commerce as a tool to enable Manitoba Business to compete globally. I have dedicated my time to building the foundations for promotion of award winning Manitoba Business through the facilitation of the regional agreement between CIPA and the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. In March 2005 GHY International was recognized by IBM and Common, an IBM midrange users group, with the first ever iSeries Innovation Award in the category of Infrastructure Simplification. It was for our work on a project called; good, better, best that combined Windows servers, Linux servers, Lotus Domino servers, and iSeries workloads onto two IBM iSeries servers in a virtualized environment and has created great savings for the firm With almost 2 decades of information technology experience and insights I have contributed time in the past to serve on various boards and groups including Canadian Society Customs Brokers (CSCB) Systems Design Committee, Data Processing Management Association (DPMA) Winnipeg Chapter, Manitoba EDI User Group. I am a founding member and Chair for the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce Innovation Awards (1999 to 2003) and was awarded Volunteer of the Year by the Winnipeg Chamber in 2001, Manitoba representative as a Judge on the national awards program for the Canadian Information Productivity Awards (CIPA) (1999 to 2002). Founding member (2004) of the CIO Association of Canada and currently serving as Member at Large on the Board for CIO Canada (2004 to 2005). I am currently enrolled in the Edinburgh Business School Heriot Watt University self paced MBA program. I am also an accomplished speaker with many national and international speaking engagements to my credit. I have been often quoted and there are numerous articles on my teams work that have appeared in many publications on line and in print including the Globe & Mail, Canadian Business Magazine, CMA Magazine, Vancouver Business, Les Affaires and many more technology related publications as well.

About GHY International: GHY assists companies that trade in the global and North American marketplaces with International Trade Consulting, Compliance Management Consulting, Canadian and US Customs Brokerage, Cross Border Logistics, Non-Resident Importer Services.